HERITAGE FLIGHT SIMULATION

Making historical flight accessible

Throttle Quadrant taking shape

I am very pleased to say that the throttle quadrant is nearing completion. In the process much has been learnt about the operation of the unit.

For the Rotol (Airscrew Control/Prop Speed) control box we had to deviate from the original, taking the approach instead followed by DCS World. As far as I could discern, the original mechanism operated a vernier cable which was wrapped internally in the box. Operation of the lever in our case will move a control rod, similar in operation to the throttle lever.

The throttle incorporates a gate in the form of a plate which stops forward movement of the lever. Full power at this point is delivered for take-off and climb. By moving the lever to the left then forward the plate is bypassed and the power set in combat mode, which was available for a limited period (5 minutes?) before the engine would call it a day.

View from above where the stop-plate or gate can be seen

The throttle lever when pushed forward activates a toggle switch which powers the circuit to the gear position indicator light. Operators need to remember to switch this off again when shutting down.